Following my offer of a free service to scan and restore old colour slides, several former aircrew have contacted me and sent me their slides.
Here are some of the slides sent by 'Virgo' taken by former Sgt. Mike Bonnick who was an air engineer with 30 Squadron on Beverleys at Khormaksar. Alas the slides had been stored in a garage and had deteriorated quite badly, but I have managed to restore quite a few and thought I would share the results.
This first shot shows what happens when you do not keep colour slides in
ideal conditions like a garage or attic, when damp encourages fungal spores to attack the film enulsion. The subject is Beverley XL148 of 30 Squadron in Aden in 1967.
Here is the same slide after some TLC by me with the help of Photoshop.
and here are some more slides, after restoration, of Beverleys from 30 and 84 Squadrons taken at Muharraq in 1967.
Finally, another 'before' and 'after' restoration shot of a 72 Squadron Wessex HC.2 on detachment in Aden in July 1968
If anyone else has similar slides that they would like restored and put on a CD, please pm me. My acceptance criteria is that the subject must at least be sharp and full-frame and be taken before 1967. Contacts from former RAF or airline aircrew especially welcome.
I am particularly keen to receive contacts from anyone that took colour slides of aircraft in the RAF during the 1950s and '60s stationed in the Far East (Butterworth,Malaysia, Borneo and Singapore - Changi, Seletar or Tengah) and in the Middle East (Bahrain - Khormaksar, Muharraq, Masirah etc.) and Malta. I would be pleased to scan and restore any slides taken during that period at those locations for free, but I cannot do miracles with 'dots in the distance' or blurred/out-of-focus slides. The subjects must be full-frame and sharp to start with.